What’s your favorite pasta?

In case you haven’t seen it, the TU’s Jenn Gish was recently in Saratoga Springs for pasta tasting, in this case thin spaghetti.

I like to eat pasta several times a week. Here, I am tempted to bring up a certain colleague of mine who wrote as a status update this week on her Facebook that she “really does not like pasta.” You know who you are.

Anyway, we at home switched over to DeCecco pasta. Have you tried it? The type of pasta you use really matters. For sure. But as any pasta snob worth his salt will tell you, what matters even more is how long you cook it, and what you put on top of it.

Look at the package. See how long it says to put it in hot water? Take an average of two minutes off that, depending on what kind of pasta you are preparing. Now, no one wants to bite into hard pasta, so be careful, it might even take a time or two to get it right. But the object here is to eat your pasta al dente – that is, firm, not hard.

I love and respect a great marinara sauce, especially with just a slight lemon zest. But ragu – a meat-based sauce – usually rules at home. Lately, we’ve been eating little potato-filled gnocchis with ragu and little balls of mozzerella that melt in wonderfully in the sauce. Absolutely delightful after a long week.

Of course, pasta can baked in an oven – it’s called ziti or il forno. Or perhaps you prefer it with some type of fish? In a salad? In soup, as in pasta fagioli? The possibilities are endless. Sauces, too, are red, white, pink, clear, thick, thin, and contain all sorts of yummy things, not just meat.